As long as we're together
by Simply-Dalektible
Summary: This takes place between House of Hades and Blood of Olympus from the Heroes of Olympus series and is mainly about Percy and Annabeth, but also about the rest of the seven. Probably shouldn't be rated T but just in case I add something later :)
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! Please review and tell me how I'm doing! I will add more if people like it, but this is it so far! Sorry that it's so short. Anyways, enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus series nor do I own it's characters.**

**Annabeth**

Annabeth woke up screaming.

She had hoped that she would be given a good night's sleep. But no. Life had to be hard for her. Because the night after she had returned from the depths of Tartarus, Annabeth Chase had nightmares of Percy dying, and the Argo II being shot down, and Camp Half Blood in ruins. They didn't feel like regular dreams, though. Just nightmares. They didn't symbolize anything but her own fear.

**Percy**

Screaming. Not a surprised yelp, not a happy shout, but a real scream of terror.

_Intruders! _his instincts said.

_Not possible, _his reason contradicted.

But whatever the screaming was signaling, he didn't care. Because it was coming from Annabeth's cabin.

**Annabeth**

5 short seconds later, Percy burst into her room followed by Hazel and Frank.

"Just dreams," she murmured weakly. Frank looked concerned and Hazel had sympathy in her eyes, but they both left without question. As soon as they left, Annabeth let the tears come. Percy wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close. _Gods,_ she loved him. He kissed the top of her head.

"I can't sleep either," he told her. She put her arms around his neck and he scooped her up and held her in his arms. They stayed like that until she had almost fallen asleep. As she was drifting off, he lay her gently on the bed and stood up to leave.

"Stay with me, Seaweed Brain…" she muttered.

The last thing that she saw that night was Percy nodding wordlessly and then slowly lowering himself onto the bed next to her. She felt him put his arm around her and kiss her forehead as she curled herself up to his chest. Annabeth slept fine for the rest of the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi two or three followers that I have! New chapter; thanks for the reviews! Anyway, I was asked for more action and longer chapters, so here goes!

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**Percy**

"Okay, everybody! Today we will be stopping here because I need to get some repairs done on the ship that I can't do while we're moving. Such as replacing the oars that the giant turtle bit off…"

Leo had announced this to them that morning. He was a little anxious about wasting an entire day not traveling, but at least they got a day to rest. And, from what he'd heard, the giant turtle attack had been pretty bad.

"I would recommend that we stay here on the beach in case, well you know, in case of monsters," Leo finished.

Ah. Yes. That. Oh well. Percy didn't mind staying on the beach. Beaches were his favorite place.

**Annabeth**

Okay. The beach. She could deal with that. And as much as she didn't like monster attacks, she would rather be with the Argo II and her friends if something did happen. And anyway, Percy would be happy.

Suddenly the light blurred on the edge of Annabeth's vision and she heard a huge crash as something toppled into Piper, who was carrying the breakfast plates back to the kitchen.

"Ow," she muttered, as she sat up with a dazed look on her face. The plates had all broken, but he was fine. Jason went to help her up.

"Oh, hi Nico," Frank said. He didn't look as excited as he sounded.

_What? _she thought. Only then did she realize that Nico di Angelo was lying sprawled out on the floor among the shattered dinnerware.

"Shadow travel," he explained, his voice weak and thin from exhaustion. Then he promptly passed out, much to the distress of Hazel. Piper, though still fazed by the collision, assured Hazel that Nico would be fine.

**Jason**

Jason had thought that Nico wouldn't come back. That's what the guy had told him, right? He wanted to go up and talk to the mysterious son of Hades, but the look that had been in Nico's eyes told him to wait. And Nico was currently unconscious. Oh well. It would have to wait.

**Percy**

With Nico in the sick bay, Hazel would not leave his side, and also would not let him attempt as much as to sit up. Frank was there with her. Leo was working on his repairs on the ship, and Piper had dragged Jason along for a romantic walk on the beach. So it was just him and Annabeth again. Not that he minded.

_A romantic walk on the beach…_ he should really take Annabeth out on a date sometime. Hmm… Maybe he could take her fishing. Or maybe…

**Annabeth**

"You want us to build a sandcastle?" she asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" Percy promised. Annabeth shrugged. She had nothing better to do.

**Hazel**

When Hazel finally allowed Nico to stand, the two of them and Frank went outside, only to see the most extravagant sand castle ever created.

"How did you _do _that?!" she exclaimed. Annabeth looked out sheepishly from around the corner of the castle.

"Oh, well, we just-"

"Do you guys want to help?" interrupted Percy.

"Oh, sure!" Hazel replied.

It was actually quite fun. Hazel summoned jewels and precious metals to decorate with; Percy would wet the sand; Annabeth would assist the creation with her architectural knowledge; and Frank would turn into a mouse to clear out tunnels and such. Even Nico helped out with the general construction. So did Piper, when she and Jason flew back from their walk. Jason would prevent the winds from blowing their castle over.

A little while later, Leo came outside for a break. He saw what they were doing and immediately disembarked to help them.

**Frank**

At one point, Annabeth got up to go retrieve some more shells, seaweed, and other adornments to add to their already magnificent sand castle. Frank and his friends had seen her get up and knew where she was going, but they continued working on their creation. After a while, Percy stood up and announced that he was going to go look for her. Frank wasn't worried, he knew she had probably just walked farther down the beach, and was more than capable of handling herself. So again, he and his friends continued on without a thought.

**Jason**

About 30 minutes later, something dawned on Jason.

"Hey, guys? Annabeth and Percy have been gone for a long time," he realized. He couldn't even remember when they'd left.

He scanned the span of the beach they were on. He flew up into the air to get a better view.

"Hey, Frank? Can you, like change into an eagle or something so you can help me look?"

Almost instantaneously, a seagull rose up next to him.

"I said eagle, not seagull," Jason pointed out. He could've sworn Frank was blushing though his feathers.

"It doesn't matter. What's that?" Frank replied.

Off in the distance, Jason could see five or so little specks that appeared to be fighting. Wordlessly, Frank turned into a dragon and picked up Hazel, Piper, and Leo. Jason grabbed Nico.

"Whoa. We are NOT flying again-" Nico's complaint was cut short as they whisked through the air.

**Percy**

Sea demons. Why did it have to be sea demons? He couldn't fight them with water. He and Annabeth were stuck with their swords.

They had managed to kill one. But they were well trained. No doubt sent by Gaea. But, really? The two demigods would probably collapse from exhaustion before they finished their opponents off. And with no way to contact their friends…

Suddenly the nearest demon burst into flames. The one Annabeth had been fighting was hit in the head by a cantaloupe, then impaled by an arrow. The demon that seemed to be the leader was struck by lightning and surrounded by diamonds and rubies, and the one nearest to her had a sword sticking through her chest, only to be pulled out again. Percy thought he saw a flash of stygian iron.

"Well, now that _that's_ over with," said Leo, who was standing nearby, slouched casually as if nothing had happened. Piper picked up the cantaloupe that her cornucopia had launched and threw it into the ocean.

"Do you guys want to walk back, or should we take a joyride on Frank The Magic Dragon's back? Because that was pretty awesome-" Leo continued, only to be cut short when he noticed 50 or so sea demons rise from the ocean.

"Fight us, if you dare, heroes," they hissed. "The two who survive will be the lucky demigods chosen to be sacrificed for the waking of Gaea."

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Sorry about the cliffhanger. I'll try to post another chapter in two or three days if I can. I'll try to finish the whole story by the release of Blood Of Olympus!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guys! I felt really bad about giving you a cliffhanger chapter, so here is chapter 3. Hope you like it!

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**Leo**

"So if it took eight of us to kill 5 of them…" Leo did the math. "Do you guys know where we can find 80 other demigods?"

"Not helping," one of his friends hissed through gritted teeth. It sounded like Annabeth, but he wasn't going to take his eyes off the water demon ladies so he could check.

The sea demons lunged.

**Piper**

After launching quite a few assorted cheeses, Piper decided that she couldn't knock the demons unconscious with appetizers. She tried shooting loaves of bread, but the most that they did was enrage her opponents. So she pulled out her knife and attacked.

It looked like Leo was doing the most damage. The sea demons certainly didn't like fire.

Percy was without his usual superiority; water didn't bother their attackers. At one point Frank caught on and changed into a dragon and torched the demons brave enough to approach him. Hazel and Annabeth defended with only their swords while Percy and Nico pressed the offense. Jason would attack from above.

Occasionally, when they felt more overwhelmed, Piper would shout out charmspeak commands; or Leo would throw a hammer from his tool belt; Percy would douse the demons in sea water and Jason would promptly electrocute them. Annabeth would turn invisible from time to time; Frank would morph back to human form and shoot a few arrows; and Piper thought she saw a few zombies wandering around, or precious stones looming up from the ground.

**Percy**

There was no way that they could win.

Sure, they had fought off about half of the sea demons' original numbers, but really? The demons were easily dodging Leo's fireballs now, and Hazel seemed as if her blade was weighing her down. Jason looked queasy from all that flying, and the fire-breathing dragon approach wasn't looking so good for Frank anymore. Annabeth had dark circles under her eyes, most presumably from lack of sleep, and there was no way Nico could keep up all that ghost-summoning without soon collapsing from exhaustion. Percy still had energy, but only from the water that he stood in. Soon the sea demons would press him onto the land, and he would be spent. Their situation was hopeless.

**Hazel**

She had heard once upon a time that if you drained your life force of energy to it's limit, you would spontaneously combust. Hopefully untrue, but still. The way Hazel saw it, she was probably already in flames. Her friends were too busy to notice, and she was too tired to care.

Subconsciously, she and her friends had started backing up, forming a tight circle, the seven of them looking nervously at each other.

_Wait_, she thought, _seven? _She counted again. Frank, Piper, Annabeth, Leo, Percy, Jason, and herself. That made seven. But where was Nico?

_Oh no. Oh no no no no no. He's not dead is he?_ She looked around frantically, her head whipping back and forth. He was nowhere to be seen.

_Relax_, her reasonable mind rationalized. _He's probably just hiding out of sight, waiting to attack._ But her panicked self shouted that they had eaten him or taken him off to be sacrificed.

Suddenly, she looked up. She saw the glint of celestial bronze as the Argo II floated up to their side, _ballistae_ blazing.

**Jason**

Jason was very tired. Flying has nauseated him, which didn't usually happen. So he was happy to see the Argo II sail up piloted by their very own Nico di Angelo.

Nico took out the majority of the remaining sea demons, and Percy finished off the rest with Riptide. Percy and Frank had done most of the work, which amazed Jason, even if Frank had been a dragon the whole time and Percy had used the water to make himself stronger multiple times.

As Nico disembarked their ship, Hazel ran up to Nico and threw her arms around his neck. Nico looked uncomfortable. Piper, Frank, and Leo boarded with a few 'thank you's and 'wow's and congratulations of that sort. Jason slapped him on the back as we walked by, to the seeming displeasure of the son of Hades. As Percy walked by, he flashed Nico a thumbs up, and Jason could clearly see the despair in the poor kid's eyes.

**Percy**

Percy was walking up to the ship when he heard a blood curdling scream.

He immediately whipped around and saw Annabeth, about 30 yard away, kneeling on the ground with a demon claw stuck in her chest. He ran to her and scooped her up as she stared in disbelief at the claw.

"I wanted to know why she hadn't disintegrated yet," she murmured. "She was just lying there on the ground. When I got there, she lunged up, as quick as lighting, and-" Annabeth stopped talking abruptly.

"Percy, am I going to die?" she asked. She sounded mildly concerned about this. "Will I be okay?"

_Shock_, he thought, _She's going into shock_.

"Yes," replied, "You most certainly will be."

And with that, he heaved her up. Percy Jackson carrying a dying Annabeth Chase back to the Argo II while their friends celebrated a battle won. A battle that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't suggested that they build a sandcastle.

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Yeah, so I replaced my cliffhanger with another, bigger, even worse cliffhanger. I will have you know that I cried while writing this. New entry by Sunday, hopefully? I probably can't write tomorrow, but I'll try to resolve this as soon as possible! And thank you for the follows and favorites. I am totally open to reviews so please! Send some! Anyway, thanks so so so so so so much!


	4. Chapter 4

Hi guys! Thanks for the reviews, and sorry for the short chapter, I'm kind of pressed on time tonight. I didn't want to leave you with a cliff hanger did I? (though I will admit I got no closer to resolving it)

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**Frank**

"So, Nico, how did you get _back_ to the ship, anyway?" Frank inquired. "Did you, well, shadow travel, or…"

Frank was a little bit surprised that the heroic demigods from the prophecy of the seven needed the help of Hazel's little brother (or was he her older brother?) to help to defeat a couple of demons. Well. More than a couple. But anyway. It was particularly disappointing for him. He had been a fire-breathing dragon! But Nico had taken them all out with a couple _ballistae. _ He realized that Percy had done a lot of the work too. Speaking of which, where _was _Percy?

**Annabeth**

_Ow._

_Ow ow ow ow ow ow OW!_

Getting stabbed by a sea demon had NOT been high on her priorities list. Especially on their day off. But Percy said that she would be okay. And Percy wouldn't lie to her. Would he?

She was about to ponder this question when she heard a whispery voice in her ears.

_Sleep, child… _it murmured soothingly. _Sleep… _

**Hazel**

"No. I wouldn't have had enough energy if I had shadow traveled. I just ran," Nico replied matter-of-factly to Frank's question. But Frank didn't seem to be listening.

"It looked like you guys had it under control, especially Frank and Percy…" his voice cracked on the 'Percy' part.

She didn't understand why Nico always looked so pained whenever he or someone else mentioned Percy. Piper had told her once that Nico had a crush on Annabeth, but that couldn't be it. She would have to ask Annabeth sometime… But where was she?

**Piper **

Suddenly, Hazel and Frank both stood up simultaneously.

"Where's Percy?" Frank asked, while Hazel said,

"Where's Annabeth?"

Jason jumped up. "Did anyone see them get back on the ship?"

"Never mind that, did anyone see them after the fight?" Piper demanded.

Almost immediately after Piper said this, she heard Leo shouting,

"I see them! I see them! There's Percy, and it looks like he's carrying Annabeth?"

"Oh gods no," Jason murmured, and ran out to help. Piper followed, pursued swiftly by Hazel, Frank, and Nico.

Annabeth was unconscious (at least Piper _hoped _she was unconscious), and had a demon claw sticking out of her chest. Jason offered to carry her, but Percy wouldn't allow it. They couldn't lose Annabeth. She couldn't die. Could she?

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So there it is cliffhanger unresolved! Thanks again for the reviews, I am sorry (again) for the short chapter, and please let me know if you have any suggestions!


	5. Chapter 5

Hi guys! More fanfic for you all! Sorry if anything is confusing, I was kind of rushed in writing it. But here you are!

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**Jason**

Hazel immediately jumped to Annabeth's aid.

Once they were back on board the ship, she dashed around the sick bay pulling bandages, painkillers, and medications of all sorts off the shelves and out of cupboards. She ordered Piper to carefully take the claw out of Annabeth's chest and for Percy to put pressure on the wound. Most of the time, Jason actually had no idea what Hazel was doing, or where she had learned it, or if she was doing it _right_, but nobody else aboard the Argo II was trained in first aid. It was ironic, really. A child of Pluto, god of death, was the only person on a ship full of heroes who could heal their friend.

"Leo! Get me some more bandages! Frank, I'll need help extracting the poison." Hazel shouted rapid fire orders that everyone obeyed without question. "Go find some more anesthetic, Nico. And Jason, just DO SOMETHING!"

It occurred to Jason that he had been standing around watching everybody work the entire time. He quickly ran to help Leo as rolls of bandages spilled from the mountain of them that he had piled in his arms.

**Annabeth**

The whispery lady was back. And this time Annabeth could see her.

She had long, wavy, strawberry blonde hair that enhanced the gold flecks in her silver eyes. She was tall and willowy, but her face looked as if she was thousands of years old, trapped in the body of a sixteen year old. She murmured comforting things to Annabeth, about how she would be all right and all that hurting would go away soon. And then she said that she would come soon for Annabeth. Then everything went blurry and turned dark.

**Percy**

Three hours and five rolls of gauze later, Annabeth was all bandaged up and the Argo II was moving again. Leo had decided no more rest days.

Percy had stayed calm while Annabeth could see him. He had told her that everything would be all right and that she wouldn't die. Now she couldn't see him.

He was sitting on the floor of his cabin, hugging his knees. Tears were streaming silently down his face as he rocked back and forth.

_Your fault, _the dark part of his conscience whispered. _It was your idea. It's your fault, all your fault._ But this time, he did nothing to contradict it. He let himself drown in misery. _Because you deserve it, Percy,_ he thought.

**Leo**

Why, why WHY had he suggested that they get off the ship? Now they were a day behind schedule and had an injured crew member. It was all his fault.

Earlier he had heard Piper telling Jason that she should've noticed that Percy and Annabeth were gone when they were building the sand castle. Jason had replied that if anything, it was _his_ fault for not finding them sooner. He had heard Frank muttering something about not fighting as hard as he could've, and Hazel was worrying too much about if she had used the right procedure to remove the demon claw. Nico was probably kicking himself for not getting to the ship faster, and Percy was probably feeling more guilt than all of them combined. Everybody was blaming themselves. Was it really because of the faults of that many people?

**Piper**

Annabeth's eyes fluttered open.

She had been watching over her friend, and she just woke up. All of a sudden, out of the blue.

"Hazel! Get down here!" Piper yelled. Hazel was there in an instant.

"Hi, guys," Annabeth said tentatively. "What's… What's going on?"

"How much do you remember? Do you feel okay?" Hazel inquired.

"Yeah, I'm fine, and I think I remember pretty much everything…"

**Frank **

So Annabeth was all right.

Hazel had checked her, and she was perfectly fine. It was like she had never been stabbed. She wasn't really supposed to engage in physical activity (which sparked quite a bit of protest from the daughter of Athena), but she was allowed to leave the sick bay and continue her duties. The fact that she was better already was kind of freaking Frank out.

**Annabeth**

Annabeth had woken up the morning after she had been stabbed. She had gotten hugs from all her friends (especially Percy) and she had felt fine for the rest of the day. She felt like something had happened while she was unconscious. Something that she should remember…

The whole situation was too good to be true. So naturally something had to wrong.

It was that night that it happened. She had felt kind of faint, so she sat down on the floor. Then her hand started twitching. It wasn't long before her whole body was convulsing, spasming on the carpet.

Her mind had been in a state of panic. It scared her, not being able to control her muscles. It scared her even more, not knowing the reasoning for the seizures. But there was one thought, one particular thought, that kept coming back to her.

_What is happening to me?_

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Yeah, sorry. At least she isn't dead. Yet. Mwa ha ha ha ha (I think I'm turning into Rick Riordan! Oh no!)


	6. Chapter 6

Ugh. Sorry, this one is a downer. I'll try to have a happier chapter next time. I also took a long time on this one, so hopefully it doesn't stink. Thank you guys so much for the reviews. It makes me feel so special being told that you guys actually like it. So yeah.

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**Annabeth**

When Annabeth woke up, her first thought was, _Why am I on the floor?_

And then she remembered. She didn't even have time to decide whether or not she would tell anyone before she heard a knock on her door, then Percy's voice asking if he could come in.

"Yeah, sure," she replied, quickly jumping off the floor and onto her bed. At least she had been alone when she had her seizures. She didn't want to be a burden to her friends. Besides, it would probably only be a one time thing.

**Percy**

"Are you okay?" he asked as he entered the room. "You missed dinner."

"Yeah," she replied, "I'm just tired."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "If anything's wrong, if anything hurts, we can tell Hazel and she can make sure you're okay…"

"Yeah. I'm fine." she said sharply.

"Oh. Okay. I- I guess I'll just leave now." He had expected her to tell him to stay. But all her got was blank eyes staring back at him uncomprehensively so he closed the door and walked back down the hallway.

**Frank**

"She's fine, just tired," Percy announced as he returned to his friends. Hazel looked alarmed.

"Do you want me to go check up on her, just to make sure I got all the poison out of her system? I'm not exactly sure if I did it right," she said nervously.

"No, it's fine," was all she received as a reply from her friend.

"Percy, you should get some rest. You look exhausted," Frank told him. Percy didn't even put up a fight. He just turned around and trudged down to his room. Wow. He must've really been tired.

Frank turned his attention to Hazel, who was all but hyperventilating next to him. Gently, he took her hand.

"Hey, guys?" he asked. "We're going to go for a walk, okay?" Frank didn't wait for a reply but promptly led Hazel out of the room.

**Hazel**

They barely made it to the deck before her tears came.

They were streaming down her face as she frantically confessed all her fears to her boyfriend.

"What if I didn't actually do anything to help her? What If I made it worse? I bet she's going through immense pain right now, but she doesn't want to trouble us. She probably wouldn't tell us if she was dying, just so we wouldn't restrict her from doing work. And if she dies, it will be all my fault."

Frank was looking ever-so-slightly frazzled at this, like he didn't know what to say, so instead he wrapped his arms around her, suffocating her in a large hug. She cried into his shirt, and he kissed her on the top of her head. They stayed like that for a long time.

**Jason**

Finally he had his chance to talk to Nico.

In the absence of Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank, Piper headed off to bed, and Leo, presumably sensing an awkward situation unfolding (considering there was a mutual feeling of dislike between the sons of Hephaestus and Hades), left the room, claiming he had some more repairs to attend to. So that left Jason and Nico.

"I thought you weren't coming back," Jason commented. Nico turned to leave.

"Dude, wait- I'm making an effort to be friendly here, you know!" Jason said, raising his voice slightly. "I don't want you to be alone. You shouldn't only have Hazel in the world."

Nico stared at him for a full ten seconds before replying. He looked down as he muttered, Usually the people who think things like that about end up dying."

"I know what happened to Bianca, and I'm telling you, I'm not going to die for just being your friend!" Jason exclaimed. "You're not that bad!"

He seemed to have hit a soft spot, because this time Nico exploded. "You think you're the only one, do you? The only one who's ever tried to be my friend? What makes you think you're so special? Because you're not. You goody two shoes son of Jupiter, everyone's hero, thinking you can just waltz in and talk to me about my problems? Ask me why I decide to do the things I do? Because you are NOT the first, Jason." He was shaking with rage now. "If I start to care about someone, they just DIE. Because that's who I am. I am death, I represent death, and you can't be friends with death," Nico spat. "You asked me why I hide among the dead? IT'S BECAUSE THERE'S NO ONE I CAN KILL THERE!" He looked at Jason with cold, dark eyes. "Don't you put yourself in my shoes. I don't want your sympathy, your pity." He paused. "And don't you ever-" His voice broke. "Don't you _ever_ tell me that you understand." And with that, he melted into the shadows, leaving Jason befuddled in the darkness.

**Piper**

The next day, they were attacked by a huge storm of wind spirits.

Everybody was on the deck fighting them, except for Nico, who seemed to have disappeared. Jason and Frank attacked from the sky, Piper shot warm foods out of her cornucopia, and Leo manned the _ballistae_ while Percy, Hazel, and Annabeth defended from the deck. It was pretty straightforward. Except for when the battle was over, a tortured scream arose from one of the seven people standing on the deck of the Argo II.

**Annabeth**

She had held it off while they were fighting but she could feel insanity pressing at the edges of her mind.

As soon as the wind spirits were gone, she collapsed on the deck and started shaking. Oh, but this time it _hurt_. Like a thousand tiny little knifes pressing into her mind, poking around and tearing at her flesh. Like hundreds of sets of miniature teeth gnashing at her thoughts, so the only feeling that remained constant in her brain was pain.

**Percy**

He whirled around, trying to figure out which of his friends was screaming. Suddenly, he saw Annabeth twitching and jerking on the floor. He looked at her and started towards her, then stopped. He couldn't do anything to help her. He groped for something to say, something to tame the anguished look in her eyes, but there was nothing. He couldn't tell her that she would be okay, because there was something else in her eyes, besides pain and terror. Something he had never seen before in Annabeth, but he knew what it looked like well enough. It was emptiness, loneliness, despair, defeat. Her eyes were devoid of all hope.

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Yeah. Sorry about that. But don't worry, I'm not just making it up as I go, I have it all planned out, and the next chapter is sort of happy-ish I guess? Better than this one, at least. Sorry, again, I am truly sorry.


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, here's chapter seven! I know it's kind of short, but I hope to get chapter 8 posted some time tonight. (Well, tonight in my timezone) Suggestions, comments, complaints, or questions please leave me a review!

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**Leo**

Nico came back shortly after the wind spirit attack.

Nobody asked where he had been, but Leo noticed that Jason had been avoiding him. Whatever sort of strange friendship that had stretched between the two had clearly vanished.

But really, he had bigger things to worry about. The Argo II was en route for Athens, but Annabeth had developed a really bad fever. The ambrosia and nectar that Hazel was regularly feeding her didn't seem to help, and they couldn't really get anything out of her as it seemed to be she was having fits of hysteria.

They had lost the strategic mind of their quest, and Percy was in pieces, too. He knew, as well as the others did, if something happened to Annabeth, he would fall apart, and there was nothing that they would be able to do to get him going again.

**Piper**

"There's something wrong down there," Nico announced the next morning at breakfast. "I don't know what it is, but it feels like there's something alive down there that shouldn't be." Hazel nodded absentmindedly to this.

"Something that shouldn't exist," she commented.

"Like, down on the ground?" Leo asked. " because I thought we were avoiding the ground."

"It might be a trap," Percy murmured. "To lure a few demigods down for Gaea to sacrifice." Piper had a feeling that would be all Percy offered to the conversation that morning.

"Then again, if it's one of Gaea's minions that reformed, we should go kill it," Jason advised.

Piper spoke up. "What if we send two guys? Gaea needs one girl and one boy so she can rise, and considering we are currently harboring over twice as many healthy males than females…" She trailed off. _Considering that there are more boys on the ship, it wouldn't be as important if two of them died._

After a couple minutes of silence, Jason said, "Well, that sounds like a plan! Leo, you should probably stay up here, pilot the ship…"

"I'll go," Nico volunteered. "I can lead us to the, you know, supposed-to-be-nonexistent thing."

There was silence for a couple seconds, and then the ship suddenly lurched. Frank promptly stood up, his face looking slightly green, and left the room.

"Whoops, sorry, forgot to turn the stabilizers on," said Leo, and hurriedly ran down the hallway.

"Well, yeah, I guess I can go, then," Jason hesitantly offered. Piper could clearly see that he was uncomfortable with the notion of this, so she said, "Oh, no, that's alright. Percy will go, won't you Percy."

"What? Oh yeah. Yeah." Percy replied. Whoops. She hadn't meant to charmspeak. Oh well.

Nico visibly cringed at this change in partnership. Not for the first time, she wondered what Percy possibly could have done to make Nico hate him so much. She had heard about Bianca, but really? He had to be over that by now. Fortunately, Nico didn't put up a fight but proceeded, looking very nervous, off the ship with Percy as they set off on their quest.

**Percy**

"So where is this creature that we're dealing with?" Percy asked as he and Nico disembarked the Argo II.

"Should be somewhere down here, in this plaza," Nico replied bluntly.

Percy looked around the area in which they had landed. If the mortals noticed a large celestial bronze _trireme_ floating above their heads, they didn't say anything. Well, most of them. Everybody seemed to be acting normal, milling around like normal tourists, except for one girl who was staring up at the Argo II with an incredulous expression on her face.

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See! I told you it wouldn't be as depressing as the last chapter! Thank you guys for all the follows and favorites!


	8. Chapter 8

Here is chapter 8! I know it's short, but I was pressed on time. I don't know when I can post another chapter because I will be busy next week, but I'll try to be back as soon as I can!

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**Percy**

"What is _that_?" the girl exclaimed as she gawked at the ship. Percy looked at her. She had the longest hair he had ever seen. It stretched down to her hips and was goldish orange. She was kind of tall, and wore a green t-shirt and jeans.

"What should we do?" he asked Nico. "Do we just ignore her, or what?"

"Um, Percy? I think we have some bigger problems right now…" Percy whirled around to see Nico standing with his sword drawn, facing at least a dozen _empousai_.

The demons charged. Percy uncapped riptide and cut off the arm of the nearest demon to him. The girl who had seen the Argo II spun around, clearly noticing the monsters.

"What is going ON here?" she screamed.

"Percy! There are too many! We have to get back on the ship!" Nico shouted. Percy turned to see that the Argo II had seen their trouble and was waiting for them to come back. He parried a strike from a demon's claw and turned to run. As he and Nico sprinted back towards the ship, the girl shouted at him.

"Can you tell me exactly _what_ those things are and _why_ there is a giant golden ship in the harbor that nobody seems to be noticing?"

Percy made a split-second decision and grabbed her wrist, pulling her on board the Argo II with him.

**Hazel**

Hazel was mildly surprised when not two but three people returned to the Argo II.

The girl looked about Nico's age and was asking about a billion questions regarding who they were, what they were doing here, and why their friends had swords.

"She could see the ship," Percy panted.

"Yeah, I think we got that," Piper replied. "But how are we sure she's not a monster? She could be that impossible thing Nico mentioned."

"Well, we can see if she's mortal," Jason pointed out. He drew his sword and walked toward her. The girl flinched. "I'm not going to hurt you, Jason explained. I just need to see your wrist." Hesitantly, she thrust her arm out toward him. Jason made a cut on her wrist with his sword. Blood welled up around it. "She's not mortal," he announced.

"But how are we sure she's not a monster?" Piper asked skeptically.

Suddenly Hazel had an idea. "Does anybody have ambrosia squares on them?"

Leo pulled one out of his tool belt. Hazel gave it to the girl. "Eat this," she said gently. The girl ate it.

"Well, that settles it," Frank announced, "She's a demigod. If you weren't," he explained to the girl, "You would have gone up in flames." She looked ever-so-slightly discomforted at this.

"Okay," Jason said. "Who wants to do the explaining?"

**Frank**

While Hazel and Piper introduced the girl to the glorious demigod life, Frank, Percy, Nico, Leo, and Jason discussed who her godly parent might be.

"So this girl, this, what was her name again?" asked Leo.

"Zoe," Percy reminded him, his voice sounding distant.

"Right. So, this Zoe, she could be a child of pretty much any god, at the moment."

"We should ask her about what kind of things she likes to do," said Jason. "But with what we have at the moment, she could be Minerva, with the blond hair and grey eyes."

"She, um, she could be Aphrodite," Leo said. Frank laughed.

"We should ask her which one of her parents is missing," Nico mentioned.

Just then, Hazel and Piper led Zoe into the room. Hazel walked over to Frank.

"She likes reading, archery, swimming, building things, travel, rom coms, her favorite sport is football, her favorite animal is the eagle, and her favorite color is black. And, to top it all off, both her birth parents are still alive and not gods." Hazel told him "This is going to take a long time."

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Yeah, I know, it's short, I'm sorry. At least it's not sad! Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

Hi guys! I'm back! I haven't been able to post recently, I'm on vacation, so my writing time is limited! I know it's kind of short, but it's better than nothing. Enjoy!

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**Zoe**

"Okay, so, your parents are lying to you about your birth parentage," the blonde boy with the weird scar said. She was still having trouble remembering all their names.

"Or the non-godly birth parent didn't know," suggested the pretty girl with feathers in her hair. _Her name sounds like sniper_, she remembered. Okay. Blondy-with-weird-scar and pretty-little-sniper. Who was next?

"How does this explain all of her- her diversity?" she could see that the speaker, a dark haired boy with sea green eyes, was struggling for the right word to explain.

"Maybe a minor god/ goddess?" the nice, frizzy-haired girl asked. "Of chaos, or community or something?" Zoe decided to call this girl frizzy.

"Chaos and community. So similar," the latino kid commented. He was kind of impish, and frankly, starting to look ridiculous, wearing a toolbelt and welding goggles. Suddenly his hand burst into flame. The asian kid sitting next to him jumped back. Normally, this would surprise her, but she had seen a lot of weird things that day. So now we have Katniss Everdeen and, hmm. Zoe entitled the kid with flame-phobia with the name panda.

"That's not important." Blondy, sniper, ocean-eyes, frizzy, Katniss, and panda all turned to look at the thin, mopey-looking boy in the corner who had been there when she saw the ship. He was probably about her age. "The real question is, what should we do with her?"

**Frank**

They elected to have her stay with them.

As they were fairly sure she was a demigod, it probably wouldn't be safe to drop her back down into the plaza and an _empousa_ snack. Also, he guessed that at least some of his friends were mystified with this mystery of her parentage.

"There's this one room, down this hallway, where we have an empty room. Our friend Annabeth usually uses it, but," Frank's throat tightened up. "She's currently… _absent_."

"She's not dead, is she?" Zoe asked incredulously.

"No, just sick," Frank replied. "But don't worry," he added quickly, "it's not contagious."

"Oh. I hope she gets better." There were a few seconds of awkward silence. "Well, thanks for letting me stay here, Pand- um, Frank. I hope your friends doesn't mind."

**Hazel**

"She called me panda."

Hazel had a hard time not laughing at this. Even with his blessing of Mars, Frank had not yet lost his unfortunate resemblance to the furry bamboo-eaters.

"Can you change into a panda?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess." Frank replied. Hazel blinked and suddenly a grown giant panda was sitting next to her on the deck.

"No, turn into one of the cute ones, like those two or three-year olds." she demanded. The giant panda seemed to have an exasperated expression on his face, but a second later, a cute little panda youngling was rolling around playfully at her feet. She patted its head and scratched under its chin as Frank the baby panda batted her hand with his paws. It was a little weird, she'd admit, but it was fun. It had to feel strange from Frank's point of view though.

**Leo**

As it turns out, baby pandas are not skilled at fighting possessed birds.

Frank had been rolling around at Hazel's feet in panda form, and then some crazy pelicans decided to attack (no doubt possessed by eidolons). Leo shot fire at them and Hazel drove them back with her sword, but Frank apparently got stuck in panda-land and tumbled about the deck while they fought. Eventually Leo and Hazel drove the birds off. Everything was fine, but Leo was a little annoyed. Frank transformed back into a human, and, blushing profusely, announced that he was going to wake up Percy, who had been on guard the night before and was currently snoring away in his bunk.

**Percy**

Percy hadn't been able to sleep.

He tried. It wasn't nightmares or anything, he just couldn't rest. So he went to go visit Annabeth in the sick bay.

And that was where Frank found him, 2 hours later, clutching his girlfriend's hand, staring blankly and her shivering body. When his friend said it was time for lunch, Percy looked up at him wearily, then looked back down at Annabeth. He hadn't slept in over 24 hours, hadn't eaten anything but a slice of pizza and half an apple since their fight with the sea demons, and really? He had no urge to rest or to eat or to do anything, really. And Percy knew all this. He couldn't control it. Percy Jackson was falling apart.

After Frank left, tears streamed down Percy's face. He turn and stroked Annabeth's hair as his body shuddered with silent sobs.

"I'm so sorry," he murmured to her. "I love you, and I'm so sorry…"

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Yeah. I know. I'll try to make the next chapter happier. Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Here is chapter 10! I got a review or two saying that I wrote cliffhangers almost as bad as Rick Riordan's, so I'll try to tone it down a bit. But at least _I_ don't make you wait a year for new material every time!

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**Piper**

Piper wasn't exactly sure that she liked this new girl Zoe. And she was starting to think that the feeling was mutual.

After lunch, she went to go tell Hazel that it was her time to do the dishes, and found her friend talking to Zoe in Annabeth's room. Apparently someone had lent it out to her as a place to sleep. It wasn't even definite that she was staying with them! Zoe and Hazel had been chatting and laughing together like they had known each other forever. And then, about an hour later, Piper had gone to go talk to Leo, only to find their mysterious new crew member happily playing Mario Kart with the son of Hephaestus. Zoe seemed to get along with everyone, and everyone seemed to get along with her. Was Piper really the only one who was having doubts about their new companion?

**Jason**

"So the _empousai_, they were the disturbance you sensed, right?" Percy asked Nico. Percy had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was disheveled a lot more than usual. Jason could tell how this whole Annabeth situation was hurting him, and he was impressed with how his friend kept it together.

Nico nodded absentmindedly in response to Percy's question.

"But we have a bigger question," Piper said. "What are we going to do with Zoe? We can't just take her away from her family like that."

Jason looked around the room. Everybody was there, excluding Annabeth and Zoe.

"The mist might hide it," Hazel pointed out. "Or I could manipulate it for you guys."

"We don't know how long that would last," Leo argued.

"And anyway," added Piper, "are we even sure we want her along on this quest?"

Jason looked at his friends' faces. Hazel looked like she wanted to defend her new friend, Leo seemed disappointed, and Frank was sporting his 'confused' face. Percy looked bored, Piper had a challenge in her eyes, and Nico was staring at a grape that he was rolling around on the table with his index finger. The son of Hades was clearly invested in this conversation.

"What do you mean?" Hazel asked. We can't just leave her down there, with all those monsters!"

"But what if she gets in the way?" Piper shot back. "We can't endanger this quest just because one little girl might get hurt," she spat

Jason was appalled. "Piper, what's going on? You're not usually like this, are you okay?"

"I'm fine! I think something's wrong with all of you!" She snapped. "You are trusting her too easily! Even if she is a half-blood, it doesn't mean she's on our side!"

A crash came from the kitchen.

"I'll go…" Nico signaled at the door. Without a second word, Nico left the room and hurried down the hall. After a glare at Piper that lasted a full count of 3, Hazel stormed out, followed by Frank, who cast a sheepish look at his friends. Percy gave the daughter of Aphrodite a mildly irritated look and trudged out of the room, while Leo wouldn't look at his friend as he followed Percy.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Piper," Jason said. He left his girlfriend with a distrustful glance And followed his friends out of the room.

Something was happening with all of his friends. They were all falling apart. And this time, Annabeth wasn't there to put them back together.

**Zoe**

"What's wrong?" Nico asked as he crashed through the doorway.

Zoe was standing in the kitchen, on the floor among a couple pots and pans.

"I'm fine," she murmured, "just tripped. Why do you guys even have these things? Doesn't your food just appear?" she asked as she held up a frying pan.

"Leo thinks they add a more… _homestyle_ effect. Also, our old satyr chaperone liked to use them as weapons." Nico told her.

Zoe had to admit, she didn't think that talking with this Nico guy would be very easy. Frizzy had said that he didn't commune with people very much, and Flame Boy had told her that he was weird and scary and hated pretty much everyone on the ship excluding his sister. Also, some part of her felt like she shouldn't talk to him…

Nico helped her put the pots and pans back where they came from, and they carried out a conversation, mostly about the quest and the prophecy of the seven.

"So you're not technically _part_ of their quest," she realized. He nodded. "Then why are you here?"

"Same reason as you. I've got nowhere else to go, and I want to help out." But something told her this wasn't quite the truth.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her gut. Memories flashed in front of her eyes. She remembered who she was, and what she was meant to do here.

She looked down at her arm, and her skin was surrounded in a golden aura, streaked with silver. Nico was staring at her, appalled.

"Take me to her. Your friend." Her words came out in airy breaths. "Take me to Annabeth."

**Percy**

Percy rushed down to the sick bay. Nico had told them that Zoe was glowing gold and silver and wanted to see Annabeth.

He understood what Nico meant when he saw Zoe. She was, in fact, glowing gold and silver. She was facing Annabeth.

Once Piper, Jason, Nico, Leo, Percy, Hazel, and Frank had gathered in the sickbay, she turned around, her eyes closed.

"I am Zoí." She breathed. "I am Life." She opened her eyes, and they were blazing metallic like the rest of her body. "And I have come to help your friend."

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Yeah, I'm sorry. But at least it's not a _bad_ cliffhanger. No tartarus here :) Thanks for the follows, favorites, and reviews! Please, if you have any suggestions, let me know. I need some ideas for what happens next (After I finish with this whole Zoi fiasco.)


	11. Chapter 11

Ugh, sorry. This one is depressing. But I made it longer. And less cliffhanger-y.

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**Leo**

For once, Leo had thought he'd found a friend who had neither freaky demigod powers nor a burning desire to kill him. As it turned out, his new friend Zoe, or as she was actually called, Zoí, was the supreme commander queen of all freaky demigod powers.

"I am the child of all the gods," she breathed. Leo noticed that as she spoke, wispy tendrils of silver and gold curled out of her mouth occasionally and dissolved in the air. Her hair was growing down past her waist and was now streaked with the same colors.

"Okay, hold up. Child of _all_the gods?" Piper asked skeptically. "How is that even possible?"

Zoí tilted her head to the side, as if deciding whether or not to answer her question.

"Well, okay. There were once seven demigods. The daughters of Wisdom, Love and Death. The sons of Water, Air, War, and Fire. These seven were on a very important quest. There was also a daughter of Travel, a son of Wine, and a daughter of Agriculture, however these three were not part of that quest. These were my ancestors," she told them.

Wait. Did that mean that Leo would end up with either a daughter of Hermes or Demeter? Frankly, he'd rather have the Demeter girl.

"I was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. I was invited to Hestia's hearth. I joined the hunters, and have been serving milady Artemis for millennia. And very recently," Zoí paused and looked at the astonished demigods circled around her, "Hera wiped my memory and sent me here to you. To help you. As you see, I carry the blessings of all the gods on my shoulders. I have powers that the olympians couldn't even dream of. And as it seems," she continued as she slowly approached Annabeth, "it is time for me to use them."

Not even Piper could argue with her as she took Annabeth's hand. Annabeth shuddered. Her forehead broke out into a sweat. It didn't look like she had very long.

"There, there, child. It will all be over soon." Zoí turned to the seven demigods around her. "First, someone needs to take her pain."

**Percy**

_First someone needs to take her pain._

Before he even knew it, Percy was stepping forward.

"Tell me what I need to do. Do it quickly, get her out of her pain as soon as possible. I don't care what it does to me," he said. Annabeth convulsed again. Tears streamed down Percy's face.

"Help her, please, help her…" he sobbed. "Kill me if you have to. Just please…"

Zoí knelt down next to Percy. This is going to hurt. A lot." Percy nodded. "Okay. Take her hand."

As Percy clasped his girlfriend's hand, Zoí closed her eyes for a full count of five. When she opened them, Percy felt a stabbing pain in his side. He inhaled sharply. Suddenly, Annabeth regained consciousness. Her eyes widened as she looked at Percy.

He saw the question in her eyes. _What did you do?_

And then the pain came. It was like needles poking through his skull. Sword points through the chinks in his armor. Tiny little teeth biting at his brain. Forget holding up the sky. Forget the _arai_ and their curses. That was _nothing_ compared to what he felt now.

**Hazel**

Percy stumbled from his crouching position and fell onto the floor. She could only imagine what he was going through right now. Annabeth was fully conscious now, and fully aware that something was amiss. She inched forward off her cot and reached out to grasp his hand, but Zoí warned, "Don't touch him. it will only make things worse." Sure enough, Percy recoiled at her touch.

Hazel was pretty sure that tears were streaming down everyone's faces, including Zoí, but hers were tinted with gold and silver. Well, everyone was crying except Nico. He stood there, emotionless, as Percy attempted to stand up, but lost his footing and fell to his knees. He grimaced and lowered his head to the ground, shivering on the floor.

Hazel looked at her friends. Piper had tucked her head into Jason's chest. Jason closed his eyes and kissed her head. Leo was staring at the ground glumly. Hazel wasn't sure why they were doing it, out of privacy or respect or fear, but she grabbed Frank's hand and closed her eyes, tears rolling down her face as she leaned her head on his shoulder. He lowered his eyes a moment later.

**Annabeth**

Annabeth noticed that she was still dying. She noticed that all her friends weren't watching anymore. She noticed that Percy had raised his head and let out a guttural, tortured scream. All of this mattered. But her vision zeroed in on Nico di Angelo. He was standing tense but motionless, a terse expression on his face. And suddenly, so quick she almost could have imagined it, she saw a tear spill out of his eye. As fast as it appeared, he wiped it away with a quick flourish of his hand.

Percy looked up at her, his eyes pleading.

"It's okay, seaweed brain. It'll all be over soon," she managed between sobs. He curled back into a rock on the floor and pressed his hands over his ears. That sent a fresh stream of tears running down her face. Eventually, the spasms that clenched his body became less violent and less frequent. The tenseness in his muscles relaxed and his hands clamped over his ears fell to the floor. Her friends all looked up at him.

Annabeth looked at Zoí.

"It's over, right? Please tell me it's over…"

"For him," she replied.

"What do you mean, for him?" Piper demanded. "You told us he had to take the pain, and the Annabeth would be all better!"

"Something taken, something given," Zoí mused sadly. The pain is taken, a life is given."

At this Percy sat up. Annabeth wanted to yell at him to sit back down, and carry him herself to his bed and make him rest for three days straight, but instead she watched him as he gulped and said, "Okay. I'm ready."

Suddenly it dawned on her what he was about to do.

"No! You can't! I won't let you!" she shouted.

"Annabeth… I have to. You have to live. You have to live on for me." He planted a kiss on her lips and turned to face Zoí. "Go ahead."

"Ah, but young son of Poseidon," Zoí said. "It's not you who must give the life. it is I."

Annabeth stared at her, shocked.

"This is why I was born. To help the greatest heroes the world has ever known." Zoí closed her eyes, and this time, when she opened them, they were hers again, no longer glowing pools of light. "And I go willingly."

Zoí rose up on a cloud of silver light, and dissolved into golden radiance, brighter than the sun. Annabeth was living, still, but that wasn't enough to let her forget about all the people that kept her alive. The ones that died for her, they were the ones that were the world's saviors. Not her. She wasn't a hero. None of them were. They were only the people who hadn't yet died.

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Sorry. Anyways, Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

I wrote a long one for you guys this time! Enjoy!

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**Piper**

"Okay, so we will be landing in Athens in approximately the amount of time it takes Frank to realize that we're having a team meeting without him," Leo told them at dinner. "That is to say, tomorrow morning."

Frank then proceeded to walk straight through the doorway. "Hey guys, is it dinnertime?"

Jason raised his eyebrows at Leo. Percy coughed, but it sounded a whole lot like he said the words 'not landing'. Annabeth smirked and Hazel was suppressing laughter. Frank, obviously confused, sat down with them at the table.

Leo cleared his throat. "Okay, we will be arriving in Athens tomorrow morning," he announced, with a glare at Percy.

"What will we do when we get there?" Piper asked. "It's only July 19th."

"Well," Leo replied, "We wait. We kill giants, we avoid dying, we stop Gaea from rising."

"It seems to easy, though." Frank said. "We just wait for some god to come along and kill the giants for us. Gaea can't rise. We're done."

"It most definitely is a trap," Jason told his friends, "so let's just worry about being captured."

That pretty much summed up the meeting.

**Percy**

Percy had weird dreams that night. He was on a grassy hill and it was dark outside. He could've been anywhere. In front of him there was an altar with images of horrifying death scenes portrayed on stones and jars that were circled around a bare patch of earth. In the slabs of stone surrounding it there were grooves, like something blood could flow through and empty out onto the dirt.

But that wasn't what bothered him.

Standing in various places around the altar, he saw giants. Alcyoneus, Polybotes, Otis and Ephialtes, and some that he had never seen before. There was one that looked about 20 feet tall, had dark, black hair and was wielding a spear. Something told him this one was Enceladus, bane of Athena. Next he saw Porphyrion, born to oppose Zeus. This one had to be over 50 feet tall and also had a spear. What was it with giants and spears? He saw Gration, Mimas, Otus, and Hippolytus, the enemy giants of Artemis, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes. This was _all_ of the Earthborn, except for Damasen and Clytius. Percy wasn't sure _how _he knew all this, but it was probably something in his dream.

"They are close," announced Polybotes. "I can smell the son of the sea god."

Mimas inhaled with his eyes closed, something that passed for a smile on his face. "Ooh, how delightful. The son of Hephaestus can control fire."

"Ah, this time I get _two_ children!" Alcyoneus exclaimed.

Mimas and Otus were arguing over who would get to fight Frank.

"I hear he's an archer!" Mimas shouted. "And we all know that _I_ am better at dealing with those than you are, Otus."

"Yes, but you have all those hunters of Artemis that you can kill!" Otus complained. "We both know that those are _much_ more fun than mere Apollo demigods." He spat Apollo like it was the worst word he could think of.

Meanwhile, Hippolytus was busy pickpocketing Ephialtes, who enraged Hippolytus by declaring that Hermes was a better thief. Otis was begging Porphyrion to let him kill the son of Zeus.

"I can do it much more spectacularly than you can!" Otis told his brother.

"But we must stick to the agreement. Every giant gets to slay his enemy god's children." Porphyrion reasoned. "If you want revenge _that_ bad, you may have the daughter of the stupid love goddess."

Off to the side, Enceladus had charts and maps spread out before him, no doubt conceiving a very architectural plan to kill Annabeth. The sight of all these giants plotting to kill him and his friends at such ease made Percy somewhat worried. They had no doubts that their plans would fail, despite the fact that half of them had previously been killed by the demigods.

Percy woke with a start. He looked around his room. It was still night, so why was he awake? On the floor of his cabin, there was a note. He picked it up, and it read,

_We need to talk, Seaweed Brain._

**Annabeth**

When Percy came to her door, Annabeth could tell he was worried. Normally, it's a good thing to be worried when your girlfriend tells you that you need to talk. So she reassured Percy,

"I'm not breaking up with you or anything." It was like the weight of the sky had just been lifted off his shoulders. He came and sat down next to her on her bed.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Not much, she replied. "I just… I mean… Well, I need to talk to you about what you did. For me." She saw the realization on his face. Unexpectedly, he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered into her ear. "If anything happened to you…"

Annabeth wanted to hug him back. She wanted to close her eyes and breathe in his salty smell and never let go. Sh wanted to drop the issue and not speak of it ever again. But she couldn't. Because she loved him. So she pushed him away.

He was confused, upset, even hurt. But she stood up, strong and said to him,

"You can't just do that, Seaweed Brain! You can't just throw your life away for me! You could have _died_!"

He looked back at her, wounded. "But you _would_ have died."

"That's no reason to jump in and save me! Do you think I could live with myself, knowing you had died instead of me? That would kill me!"

Percy stared at her for a whole minute, his eyes full of pain. He stood up too. Finally he responded.

"Do you think I could live with myself, knowing I could have done something to prevent your death, and I didn't do it? Annabeth, do you think I could live a day without dying if you weren't right here next to me?" Percy's voice was rising with every word. "Annabeth, if you died, there would be nothing to keep me living. I'd just curl up in bed and wait for hunger or thirst to catch up with me. Because I love you Annabeth, I love you more than anything."

Annabeth fell back down onto her bed, sitting. She felt small and empty, and all she could say was, "You don't think I love you just as much?"

But Percy wasn't finished. "When I was in New Rome, I kept myself alive just by _thinking_ of you. And I didn't even remember who you were, but I knew that I loved you, and I knew you were coming for me." There were tears streaking down his face now, which made her realize that he wasn't angry. He wasn't upset. It was something else.

"And you know what? If I die before you, if I achieve Elysium, I'm not going to try for rebirth. Because I don't want to be reborn into a world where I can't see Annabeth Chase every day."

Annabeth stood up. Percy's eyes were raw and unguarded, like you could see every last thought in his mind and nothing would stop you. She walked toward him slowly and stood in front of him for a few seconds, and then hugged him fiercely. She felt like a little girl again, and all she wanted was to stay like this for the rest of her life. But instead she looked up at him. Percy hands trembled as he brushed the hair out of her face. She leaned in and kissed him, then wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head into his chest. They stood like that for a long time.

She wished she had something to say to him. Percy had just confessed all of his love for her, but all Annabeth could do was whisper 'Seaweed Brain' in his ear. Eventually she must've fallen asleep, because she half remembered gentle hands carefully lifting her into the arms they belonged to.

In the morning, Annabeth woke up, cradled in Percy's arms. He sat in a beanbag chair in the corner of her room, and she looked up to see Frank standing over them, muttering something vaguely along the lines of _not again…_

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That last part made me cry. :( Anyways please review!


	13. Chapter 13

Here you go! I wrote another long one! The beginning is sort of uplifting but I have to warn you some parts are kind of depressing.

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**Percy**

On the bright side, there were no screaming satyr chaperones to punish him. On the other hand, Frank spent the entire walk from Annabeth's cabin to the dining room (where everyone else was waiting) yelling at Percy.

"We thought you guys had killed each other or something! Piper said she heard you guys screaming at each other and then you guys were quiet, but we didn't think anything of it until Percy wasn't in his room this morning!"

Percy glanced sideways at Annabeth. Had they really been yelling that loudly?

"Hazel was freaking out," Frank continued. "She was scared that you had jumped in the ocean after we landed and didn't come back up."

"Wait- We landed?" Annabeth interjected.

"Yeah, last night." Frank explained. "Leo decided to set down on the ocean because it seemed safer. He said that-"

"Aren't you supposed to be mad at us?" Percy interrupted. Annabeth glared at him. Frank continued his infuriated ranting until they reached their destination.

After Hazel and Piper had finished scolding him, they all settled into their usual breakfast routine. Leo explained that they had landed in Athens, and Percy shared about his dream with all the earthborn. Everybody had been expecting that they would have to face quite a few giants to achieve their goal. Still, seeing that many of them at once had unsettled Percy. Eventually, the conversation died down and they all ate a relatively quiet breakfast, until Jason spoke up.

"Seriously, though, Percy, you guys should try to be a little more discreet."

Leo spit a mouthful of orange juice across the table, which unfortunately landed mostly on Nico. Hazel promptly stood up and left the room (whether that was because she was only 13 or was from the 1940's or both, Percy had no way of knowing). Annabeth's face was red and Frank had suddenly become very interested in his omelette. Piper had her eyebrows raised. Nico was glaring at Leo, who had been trying (and failing) to suppress laughter, but now had fallen out of his chair and was scrambling across the floor in an apparent attempt to get as far away from the son of Hades as possible. Meanwhile, Percy was trying to come up with a not awkward way to explain that he and Annabeth had not been having sex. None of his friends save Hazel seemed to be bother by it, but still. Unfortunately, Percy thought of nothing. So that was the start of another completely totally utterly normal day aboard the Argo II.

**Hazel**

Sometimes it was incredibly hard being almost 4 years younger than all of her friends. Still, Hazel was determined to keep Percy and Annabeth separated for as long as she could. So she asked Annabeth to come with her to scout around Athens. So far, they hadn't seen any monsters, which kind of set Hazel on edge. But something was wrong with Annabeth. Hazel had assumed that she would be excited to be in her mother's city, or at least intrigued by the architecture, but really, she just seemed depressed. Hazel led her friend over to a park bench and they sat down.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Annabeth turned to look at Hazel, and her eyes were full of despair.

"Somebody's going to die soon," she whispered.

Hazel was shocked. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's a trap. It's all a trap. Getting out of the ship. Coming to Athens. Trying to unite the two camps, voyaging to the ancient lands, this entire quest has been a trap." Annabeth told her.

Hazel looked at her friend. Annabeth must've sensed her confusion, because she continued.

"Don't you see? It's all been too easy. Gaea could've sent all of the earthborn after us in Rome. She could've plucked Percy and I out of Tartarus and sacrificed us right then and there. But she's not, because she wanted to find the strongest of us. She wants us to think that we can actually do something to stop her." Annabeth looked at Hazel. She still didn't understand, so Annabeth kept talking. "My theory is that she's going to have her minions pick us off one by one, to see who's the most resilient. Then she'll use her favorite demigods to wake."

"Do you really believe that?" Hazel asked incredulously. "That there's no hope?"

Annabeth smiled dryly at her friend. "I never said that we don't have hope. I just mean that we can't do it on our own."

**Piper**

Piper, Jason, and Percy were on guard duty, and Nico, Frank, and Leo got to rest because they'd been up all night, guarding (and in Leo's case, landing) the Argo II. Finally Piper got to talk to Jason.

"I'm sorry I said all those awful things about Zoí," Piper apologized. "She turned out to be really nice in the end."

"Pipes, we're not angry with you," Jason told her.

"But _I'm_ angry with me. I was jealous of her. I _never_ get jealous!"

Jason put his hands on her shoulders. "It's fine. Don't worry."

Piper looked at her boyfriend. He looked so happy, so carefree. So sure that everything would be alright. Jason must've sensed her distress, because his expression morphed from cheerful to concerned.

"Piper, is something wrong?" he asked. Instead of answering, Piper burst into tears. Jason awkwardly hugged her.

"It's okay, Pipes, nobody holds it against you," he reassured her. Unfortunately, that wasn't why she was crying.

"It's not that," she sniffled. "It- It's just… As a child of Aphrodite, I can sense things. And… You know how last night, I heard Percy and Annabeth fighting? They weren't just fighting. Annabeth was mad because she thought Percy would give his life for her and then Percy was telling her how much he loved her… I mean, yesterday, I think I got a message from Aphrodite and I think she was telling me that they were star-crossed lovers, or something… What- What I mean is, one of them is going to die. And there's nothing we can do about it."

Jason was silent for a while. He didn't try to tell her that everything would be alright, because they both knew that it wouldn't.

"I think I might know something that could cheer you up," he told her. "Do you know how to skip stones?"

Jason floated her down towards the ocean and there they hovered, about a inch from it's surface. Quickly he flew to shore and grabbed a few rocks. He put his arms around her and showed her how to throw the stone correctly. He flicked her arm forward and the rock skipped twice.

"You realize how cliche this is, right?" Piper asked. "I'm pretty sure this happens in Harry Potter at one point. And besides," she added, "I already know how to skip stones." Piper plucked a rock from Jason's hand and flung it. The rock skipped about 7 times. Jason stared at her in awe.

Suddenly a rock flew from behind them. It hopped on the water with what had to be 80 separate jumps, then skidded across the ocean towards Piper and Jason and circled around them. Piper whirled around. Standing behind them on the water was Percy, who pretended to be examining his hand. He looked up at them and smiled. Piper laughed. She hadn't laughed in days.

"That, my friends, is how you skip a stone," Percy told them. "Now lets get back to the ship before someone notices we're missing. I don't want to be mistook for kidnapped twice in one day."

**Annabeth**

After talking to Hazel, Annabeth decided it would be a good idea to go to a temple. Any sort of structure dedicated to an Ancient Greek deity would probably attract quite a few monsters, and Annabeth wanted to see what they'd be up against.

As they walked, they avoided contact with bare earth and tried to keep on sidewalks. They didn't want to be captured by old dirt face herself.

Annabeth was worried that she's scared Hazel. Having already died, Annabeth thought that maybe her friend would understand what she was feeling. But if Annabeth was the only one who felt like this, if not even the Hades kids felt death approaching, then it wasn't a good sign.

"There's something up there," Hazel commented, pointing up a hill. The shrine-like thing that Hazel was pointing to looked out of place. It looked older than the rest of the city. And Athens was _old_. The mortals seemed oblivious to it, which made Annabeth even more cautious to go near it. But they needed to check it out.

Wordlessly, Annabeth started up the hill. When she reached the top, she examined the shrine. It seemed to be an altar, but it had awfully gruesome scenes etched into the stone. There were slabs of rock on the ground with grooves in it that ran towards a bare patch of earth in the center of the stones. Too late, Annabeth realized what they had found. She was about to tell Hazel to run, but suddenly a giant appeared from nowhere and pinned her to the ground. With a jolt, she realized it was Enceladus, bane of her own mother. Frantically, she whipped her head around to see Hazel trapped by Alcyoneus, the giant born to oppose Hades. Hazel her friend's eyes and Annabeth knew as well as Hazel did that this was the shrine to Gaea that Percy had seen in his dream. This was where the blood of Olympus would be spilled.

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Guess what! I'm back to writing cliffhangers! Don't worry, I'm going to try and update as much as I can, but my school will start soon so I don't know if I can post a lot then. But that's an issue for a week from now. Thank you so much, everybody who has followed and/ or favorited me or the story. Review if you can! I appreciate those too!


	14. Chapter 14

I'm sorry, I know it's been forever since I updated. So I wrote another long one. But it's kind of sad. Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!

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**Frank**

Frank was starting to get worried about Hazel. And Annabeth, of course. But mostly Hazel. They had left at around 10:00 that morning, so when Percy woke him up at 1 for lunch, he was surprised that they hadn't made it back yet.

Lunch was a quiet and subdued affair. Leo looked exhausted. Frank doubted that he had spent the time he was given sleeping. As much as he resented the guy, Frank felt sorry for him. The poor kid had had a really sad life. He was slumped in his chair, eyes half closed, as if it was too tiring for him to be ADHD today.

Percy was staring numbly at the wall, tapping his feet nervously. He had only eaten two slices of blue (ew) pizza, which was the equivalent of half a slice to a normal person. Nico, as usual, slouched quietly in the corner, nibbling on a cracker. Piper and Jason just looked depressed.

Frank knew, as did his friends, that this was the end for them. They had until August 1st. The Feast of Spes. And with them having arrived in Athens, the prophecy was going to come into play. The world would fall to storm or fire, and oath would be kept with a final breath. And then it was over. The quest of the seven would be no more. They would all disperse to their various homes around the world or remain at their summer camp of choice. Frank had never really thought much about _after_. He had thought, assuming he survived, that he would go back to daily life in Camp Jupiter with Hazel. But now, he questioned his choice. What about Percy, and Annabeth? They would probably go back to Camp Half-Blood. Jason would want to stay with Piper, and PIper would want to stay with Leo, and Leo would want to avoid all the angry roman demigods that wanted to kill him because he blew up half their city, so off to Camp Half-Blood with them. Hazel might want to stay with her friends (and Nico, who would probably also choose the Greek side), and Frank couldn't leave Hazel, but neither could he leave his new position of praetor…

Suddenly, Nico dropped his half-eaten cracker and stood up straight.

"They're in trouble. A lot," Nico informed them, "of trouble."

Everyone hopped into action. Piper grabbed the weapons that people had left in their cabins, Leo sat up, suddenly alert, and ran to his controls to scan the city for monsters, Jason flew off the ship to get a birds eyes view, and Frank sat in his chair, frozen, praying to the gods that Nico could sense the trouble because Hazel was his sister, and not because she or Annabeth was dead.

Percy suddenly stood up. He had remained in his seat, and Frank had assumed that he too was motionless because of terror or shock. But Percy walked over to Nico and, in the most serious, vengeful voice that Frank had ever heard, he asked,

"Where are they?"

When Nico didn't answer, Frank noticed Percy clench his hands into fists. His arms trembled. Only then did Frank realize how angry Percy really was, and how angry he'd been since Tartarus, since the quest began. But never before had he let his anger show.

"I said," Percy growled, "_where are they?_"

Nico remained silent a second time. Percy clenched his teeth and stared at Nico. Nico held his gaze. Finally Percy slammed his fist into the wall a foot from Nico's head. Nico flinched but stood his ground.

"Goddamnit, Nico, I need to know where they are. I need to know where she is." Percy yelled. Frank didn't have to ask to know which 'she' he was talking about. "I need to find Annabeth and I need to keep her safe, and if that means going through you, then so be it."

"I can't tell you." Nico replied.

Percy stepped back and put his hands on his hips. "Does that mean you don't know? Because if you don't know, they just _say_ so!"

"I know where they are," Nico informed him, his voice steely and even, "I just can't tell you."

"And I don't suppose you could tell me _why_ you must ever so considerately keep this information a secret?"

"Because it's a trap," Nico spat. "They've got Hazel and Annabeth hostage and are waiting to kill them so we'll come."

"You think I don't _know_ that? I don't care if they're going to kill me, all I care about is getting Annabeth and Hazel out alive."

Nico was silent.

"Nico, if we don't go find them, Hazel's going to die again. But this time, she won't die knowing that she stopped Gaea from rising. She'll die knowing that she started it."

Nico said nothing, but balled his hands into fists at his sides.

"I suppose you're too scared to go, is that right? To scared to die. To scared to join all of your dead friends. You know who else was scared?" Percy shouted. "Bianca. She was scared of dying young and alone and in pain. But just because you're young and alone doesn't stop you from dying."

Frank sensed that the conversation was about to get really personal, so he left to go help Jason.

**Percy**

Percy didn't know what he was saying. Just whatever came to mind. He didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know what was going on. All he knew what that he had to get to Annabeth and Hazel.

"How would you know what Bianca felt?" Nico screamed. "How would you know what she'd been through?"

Something inside Nico must've snapped. Bianca was always a touchy subject for him, but he had to be over it by now.

"She came to me," Percy retorted. "In dreams. To tell me she was okay." _And to tell me to look after you. To take care of you._

"And the same thing's going to happen to Hazel and Annabeth. They're going to painfully die alone and afraid and they'll come visit me. They'll come talk to me. And then they'll choose rebirth and leave you forever. Don't let that happen again, Nico." Percy finished.

Nico stared at him, eyes composed of rage to mask the misery, strength laid fresh on top of pain, calm laced through the terror. He looked at the floor and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were full of tears.

"They're on a hill. In the middle of Athens. Out of place, and the mortals can't see it. Flying overhead you should be able to spot it easily." Nico turned to leave. He stopped in the doorway and turned his head to the side.

"Don't talk to me about pain, Percy Jackson," he whispered, barely loud enough for Percy to hear. "If you only knew how much torture you put people through…"

**Leo**

"We have to fly overhead to find it," Percy told them. "That's what Nico said."

"So," Leo offered. "Jason, you grab Piper, and Frank,"

Frank groaned.

"It's dragon time!" Leo finished.

Leo had thought that only he, Piper, Jason, Percy, and Frank were going, but Nico hopped on right as they were leaving. He didn't give an explanation.

"There," Leo pointed out as they flew over the city. "Large, mysterious hill with about a dozen giants and two girls?"

Frank and Jason both landed at the base of the hill without question. As Frank was morphing back into human form, a voice boomed from the top of the hill.

"Oh look! We have visitors!"

Leo looked up to see Ephialtes, the giant that he had helped kill not even a month ago, standing on top of the hill. Then suddenly he felt himself being lifted from the ground. He struggled around. Holding the fabric of his t-shirt between his thumb and forefinger was a giant who had to be at least 20 feet tall.

"Hello! I'm Mimas!" the giant said. Leo burst into flames.

"Oh, fire doesn't work on me, silly demigod!" Mimas chastised. "Oh look. My brothers all found their prey!"

Leo made an effort to turn around again, and saw all of his friends captured by various giants. Mimas and his brothers carried all the demigods up the hill. He searched for Hazel and Annabeth, but Ephialtes was in his way. Then he noticed Alcyoneus, the giant holding Nico, was talking.

"-much more fun to torture than that silly little Roman girl," the giant said.

"_Torture?_" Frank asked. "If you so much as lay a finger on her…" Frank gasped as Ephialtes stepped slightly to the side.

"Hazel!" Frank shouted. Leo's heart almost stopped when he saw his friend.

Hazel's clothes were torn, her hands tied behind her back. There was blood in her hair, one of her legs was twisted at an unnatural angle, and there was a deep gash on her face. She appeared to be unconscious, because she was breathing, though barely. Frank turned into a bear to escape from the grasp of his giant, and then back into a human again as he ran up the slope. Ephialtes started forward, as if to stop him, but Alcyoneus said,

"Let him go to her. It's more fun when they're trying to protect each other."

Frank stumbled as he got to her, then gathered her limp form into his arms. Hazel's head lolled to the side.

"Now," Alcyoneus announced as he tossed Nico into the air, "It's the boy's turn."

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Sorry! Just warning you, the next one will be sad. Please review!


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